Stefano Boeri Architects envisions a Vertical Forest City on Mars

What will Shanghai look like 100 years from now? Some with grim outlooks say the Chinese metropolis will be submerged under water and engulfed by rising sea levels. In response, Stefano Boeri Architects—the designers behind the vertical forests and China’s planned forest cities—teamed up with the Chinese Space Agency and Tongji University’s Future City Lab to conceptualize a Shanghai colony on the planet Mars. Envisioned as a Vertical Forest City, this “New Shanghai” would use “eco-systemic seeds” to take root on the Red Planet.

Stefano Boeri’s “New Shanghai” vision is built on the idea of “eco-systemic seeds,” giant pods that would presumably house vertical forest city infrastructure and atmospheric gases necessary for life. The conceptual project, titled “Vertical Forest Seeds on Mars,” was recently presented at the 2017 Shanghai Urban Space and Art Season at Shanghai’s Minsheng Port. The three month-long exhibition titled “This—CONNECTION—sharing a future of public space” features a variety of projects spanning art, architecture, urban planning, and design exploring the future of cities.

Visitors will be able to learn more and even experience the “Vertical Forest Seed on Mars” project through augmented reality in an on-site installation or through online software created by Archi Maker. Stefano Boeri will also present their conceptual RADURA installation that functions as an antenna inside the “Vertical Forest Mars Seed” to allow it to “receive information from the past, present, and future.”